"Chicken Man" ALFIERI FOR COUNCIL-AT-LARGE

Dear Neighbors,

My name is Victor Alfieri, the “Chicken Man”, and I'm running for Wayne Council At Large this November 5th.  I’m running to make a difference, not to become a politician. I enter this election with a very unique perspective.  As most of you remember, my wife and I were called criminals by Wayne‘s mayor and council for wanting to live a natural sustainable lifestyle.  At that point I realized we had a serious problem and it needed to be fixed.

My wife, Michele, and I have invested ourselves into fostering community to enhance the quality of life in Wayne.  I've leveraged my commitment to sustainability, and after 2 years of hard work, I founded Wayne's first community garden, which I must say has become a tremendous success.  Other community projects include gardens located at Theunis Dey Elementary School, Lakeland Fellowship, Jewish Y, and Wayne Auto Spa where children are now learning healthy living and where their food comes from.

An example of something that greatly concerns me is as you read this, a children’s playground is being constructed in Wayne on the highly contaminated W.R. Grace site. This project is fully endorsed by our mayor and council. I assure you, if elected, things like this are not going to happen.

But sustainability is more than just organic gardening and promoting healthy living.  For Wayne to be sustainable, we need leadership that will ensure Wayne is attractive, affordable, and focuses on becoming leaders by example.

We need a resident-friendly government. In my opinion, our existing mayor and council thinks the residents work for them.  We must focus on becoming business-friendly to breathe new life into all the vacant commercial properties and to embrace the hundreds of small business owners to make Wayne a happy, thriving, vibrant place to live.

I would like to bring culture to Wayne with a jazz, or film festival.  We deserve access to healthy organic foods.  Wayne should have the best farmers market in Passaic County.  I will pursue this and make it a reality.

I will inject new fresh ideas to stimulate a community that attracts homeowners and businesses alike, while maintaining a focus on low-impact redevelopment.   I will use my expertise in sustainability to reduce taxes by making our local government practical and efficient, earning Wayne the distinction of being a leader.

“We can’t solve the problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” Albert Einstein.

Business as usual isn't good enough.  We deserve better.  My pledge to you as your Councilman, is to always act with your best interests in mind. It’s about time Wayne residents come first.